Suffolk DA: Police cleared of wrongdoing in 2013 shooting death

Two Boston Police officers who exchanged fire in 2013 with a 20-year-old man, killing him, have been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said Tuesday.

Darryl Dookhran had shot Officer Ryan Lenane, wounding him in the arm, near Geneva Avenue and Westville Street in Dorchester on Dec. 7, 2013. Conley found that Lenane and Sgt. Thomas Teahan acted “in self-defense and the defense of others when they shot Dookhran.”

The two cops only opened fire after Dookhran had already shot Lenane, Conley said.

Conley said he reached that conclusion after reviewing surveillance imagery from the area, recorded statements of the police involved and six civilian witnesses, reports of more than 100 other civilians, medical records and ballistics testing.

The two policemen, along with Officer William Traft, had spotted Dookhran with another man walking on Geneva Avenue and recognized him from a recent bulletin from the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, which indicated Dookhran was affiliated with a gang based on Favre Street and was believed to carry a firearm.

When two of the officers got out of their car to speak with Dookhran, he took off, said Conley. As he was running, he fired a .380 Ruger LCP handgun at police, hitting Lenane in the arm. Police, who were chasing after him, then returned fire, striking Dookhran in the left upper arm and head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.